Republican lawmakers, who voted to impeach or convict President Donald J. Trump, earned rebukes from their home states – a new trend of holding GOP legislators accountable for their actions in Washington.
“Wrong vote, Sen. Burr,” Tweeted former congressman Mark Warner. “I am running to replace Richard Burr because North Carolina needs a true conservative champion as their next senator.”
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U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05), who has long scolded others to act civil, reportedly does not practice what he preaches as he this week compared South Carolina voters to people who have Down Syndrome.
Cooper reportedly said this when The Nashville Post profiled him this week.
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South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison suggested Wednesday that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett might allow racial segregation to return, video shows.
Harrison spoke Wednesday at a Post and Courier Pints and Politics event in Columbia, South Carolina, where he discussed whether he would vote for Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
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Eighteen Republican attorneys general called for a congressional probe on Friday into China’s deliberate concealment of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at its onset.
“Recent reports suggest that the communist Chinese government willfully and knowingly concealed information about the severity of the virus while simultaneously stockpiling personal protective equipment,” stated the letter from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, which 17 other state attorneys general cosigned.
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Iowa Democrat Jim Larew joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Monday morning on the newsmakers line.
During the second hour, Larew explained how he saw Joe Biden’s campaign gain energy and spring to victory in the South Carolina primary which he felt was aided by the endorsement of Representative James Clyburn. Somberly, he added that Iowa may no longer be the indicator as it has been for the last 24 years by referencing Mayor Pete’s bowing out of the race after a victory in the state.
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Authorities have charged a Murfreesboro man and a South Carolina woman with TennCare fraud, according to two statements the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration released last week.
Authorities charged that Murfreesboro man, William Weed, 40 with TennCare fraud, a Class D felony, in connection with allegedly selling prescription drugs obtained using TennCare healthcare insurance benefits.
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Joe Biden was declared the winner of South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary Saturday, benefiting from solid African American support and stopping progressive rival Bernie Sanders’ winning streak.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden has never won a presidential primary in his entire career despite running for President for 32 years — he ran in 1988 and 2008 but promptly withdrew from both races in the early going after failing to gain traction — but that may change in South Carolina on Feb. 29 if the latest polls for the primary there are to be believed.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, said on Twitter this week that he has “never seen” a supporter of the Vermont socialist “being unusually mean or rude.”
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Authorities this week charged women from Nashville, Marshall County, and South Carolina with TennCare fraud.
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Hurricane Dorian has weakened to a Category 1 storm, after generating tornadoes and flooding roads in North and South Carolina.
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by Whitney Tipton President Donald Trump announced Friday plans to nominate Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Canterbury has been Fraternity Order of Police (FOP) president for 16 years, having previously spent 26 years in the Horry County, South Carolina, Police Department’s patrol, criminal and training divisions, according to the White House statement. “Chuck is one of the most honorable people I’ve ever worked with and if he is selected, I can’t think of a finer person to take the position,” said Jonathan Thompson, executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association. Thompson made the remarks to POLITICO in Nov. 2018, when Canterbury’s name was first floated for the position. Fraternal Order of Police President, Chuck Canterbury, demands off-duty cops be allowed carry guns at NFL gameshttps://t.co/pwOHP7ZaNu — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) December 2, 2015 Trump worked closely with Canterbury on sentencing reform legislation passed Nov. 2018. The measure, which granted leniency on minimum sentencing rules for some drug offenses and expanded rehabilitation programs, enjoyed rare bipartisan support and was backed by the ACLU, according to Politico. Canterbury has been vocal in his Second Amendment support, testifying July 2009 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support…
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by Chuck Ross Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asserted Sunday that the former government officials opposing declassification of Russia probe documents “are worried about being exposed.” In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Graham also argued Democrats are unconcerned with whether the FBI misled the federal surveillance court in order to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. “I want all the documents around the FISA warrant application released. I want to find out exactly how the counterintelligence operation began,” Graham said. “I think transparency is good for the American people. Not one Democrat seems to care.” “I wish some Democrat would come forward to find out if the FISA court was defrauded by the FBI and the Department of Justice.” On Thursday, President Trump granted Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from the Russia probe. He also instructed the heads of several federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, to provide documents to Barr as part of his review of the origins of the investigation. Barr is looking into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation, as well as the surveillance activities carried out by the FBI…
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A top U.S. Republican lawmaker predicted Sunday that if opposition Democrats in the House of Representatives try to impeach President Donald Trump, the president will be re-elected next year and Republicans will retake control of the House. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, an ally of Trump’s, told “Fox News Sunday” that if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic-controlled lower chamber, permits an impeachment inquiry to start, “it would be suicide for the Democratic Party.” Graham said Pelosi’s “job is very much on the line,” depending on whether she eventually relents on allowing an impeachment hearing to open. About three dozen Democrats and a lone Republican in the 435-member House have called for impeachment hearings to start against Trump, to consider whether he obstructed justice by trying to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian intrusion in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that Trump won. Even if the House were to impeach Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to remove him from office. So far, Pelosi has resisted calls to start an impeachment inquiry, instead opting to continue several House committee investigations of Trump’s finances, taxes and actions he took during his 28-month presidency to…
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by Jason Hopkins South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced an immigration bill that addresses numerous issues law enforcement officials say is driving the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. Speaking at a Wednesday press conference, Graham outlined the four main points of his proposal, addressing the “broken and outdated” immigration laws that attracts illegal immigration from Central America. Overall, the bill calls for doubling the number of immigration judges, allowing those in ICE custody to be held for as long as 100 days, more readily deport unaccompanied children, and require those seeking asylum to do so in their home countries. “What I’m trying to do is explain how to stop the flow from Central America, to regain control of our border, and stop a humanitarian crisis that I think is just going to get worse over time,” Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the press conference. Migrant children, wether they arrive at the border alone or with a family, cannot be detained for longer than 20 days. Leaders within the Department of Homeland Security have long urged Congress to extend this timeline, claiming it forces them to release illegal migrants into the U.S. while their cases are process. An extension to…
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by Luke Rosiak A former IT aide to New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan mounted an “extraordinarily extensive data-theft scheme” against the office, the culprit’s plea agreement states. The plot included the installation of tiny “keylogging” devices that picked up every keystroke. Between July and October 2018, former IT aide Jackson Cosko worked with an unnamed accomplice, a then-current Hassan employee, who repeatedly lent him a key that he used to enter the office at night and who allegedly tried to destroy evidence for him. Cosko accepted responsibility for the events revealed by federal prosecutors in court Friday. A statement of facts that Cosko agreed to says that from July to October 2018, he “engaged in an extraordinarily extensive data-theft scheme, copying entire network drives, sorting and organizing sensitive data, and exploring ways to use that data to his benefit,” arranging it into folders such as “high value.” “The defendant gained access to Senator Hassan’s Office by unlawfully obtaining keys from a staffer who was (at the time) still employed in the Office” and using it to repeatedly burglarize the office. He placed small, unobtrusive devices on at least six Senate computers that captured every keystroke, including usernames and…
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by Joshua Gill The Administration for Children and Families, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, granted an exemption to faith-based foster care agencies in South Carolina, allowing them to choose potential parents in accordance with their religious beliefs without being denied government funding. The exemption comes in response to a request from South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster on behalf of Miracle Hill Ministries, which is the largest provider of foster care in South Carolina. The ACF ruled that faith-based foster care agencies have a legally protected right to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs. South Carolina child welfare agencies won an exemption to an Obama-era regulation Wednesday, allowing them to approve or deny parents based on religion. The Administration for Children and Families granted South Carolina an exception to the December 2016 grants regulation on the grounds that faith-based foster care agencies have a legally protected right to practice their religious beliefs through good works. The regulation stipulated that foster care agencies who discriminated against potential parents on the basis of religion would not be eligible to receive government funds, meaning Christian, Jewish and other faith-based agencies could not choose to place foster children…
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The only Ohio Democrat to hold or win office in the 2018 midterm elections appears to have his sights set on the White House. Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown announced that he will tour four early, and key, presidential primary states. His team refers to the trip as the “Dignity of Work” tour and will travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Concurrent with this announcement was the launch of his new website, “DignityOfWork.com.” The website is funded by America Works PAC, the senator’s personal political action committee. As of now the site only lists some of his key issues, an email registration link, and a donation page. The crux of this early campaign appears to be an appeal to the blue-collar working class that largely abandoned the Democratic party in the 2016 election in favor of President Donald Trump. He emphasizes that “dignity of work means hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are or what kind of work you do.” The campaign revolves around the point that it’s not enough to have a job, but rather a well-paying job. This is a clever messaging manipulation that both emphasizes the bipartisan call for a strong…
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by Tim Pearce Nine states are intervening in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for approving oil and gas companies to search for oil and gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Thursday the states would join environmental groups in a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from allowing seismic testing off the coast of South Carolina. “The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued what are called incidental harassment authorizations. They would, by their own terms, result in harm to hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins and porpoises,” Frosh said. “The permits eliminate a major obstacle to testing and we content that the authorizations are illegal.” Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia accompanied Maryland in intervening in the lawsuit. The NMFS, an agency under the Commerce Department, issued “incidental take” permits Nov. 30 allowing oil and gas companies to conduct the tests. Environmental groups sued the federal government Nov. 11 to prevent the seismic testing, which involves air guns booming in the ocean seconds apart for days at a time. Environmentalists contend the permits violate the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammals Protection Act and other regulations. The federal…
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by Chris White Environmental groups are suing to prevent the Trump administration from approving seismic survey testing for oil and gas reserves off the South Carolina coast. Oceana and the Sierra Club argued in legal filings Tuesday that the Commerce Department’s approval of seismic testing violates the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, among other regulations. “Allowing seismic blasting at this scale in these waters is not consistent with the laws that protect our oceans,” Natural Resources Defense Council Director Michael Jasny noted in a press statement shortly after the lawsuits were announced. Such leases could lead to exploratory drilling for the first time in several years. Acoustic tests involve boats tugging rods pressurized for sound and emitting jet engine-like booms seconds apart for days. The exercise effectively uses reflected seismic waves to measure the Earth’s subsurface, but the technique also poses risks to marine life sensitive to sound waves. Oil producers are supportive of the approval process. The American Petroleum Institute released a Nov. 15 report that shows tapping oil and natural gas reserves in federal waters could be worth $1.5 billion in tax revenue to South Carolina over two decades. Tax revenue from the…
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by Chris White South Carolina followed North Carolina’s footsteps in declaring a state of emergency Saturday as Tropical Storm Florence approaches the East Coast on its way to becoming a hurricane. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency Friday, as the state prepares to make resources available if Florence morphs into a hurricane. He called on residents to make proper precautions. “While it’s still too early to know the storm’s path, we know we have to be prepared,” Cooper, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday. “During harvest, time is of the essence. Action today can avoid losses due to Florence.” Here are the 11 AM EDT Key Messages on #Florence https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/L5VdT2Ueh3 — National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 8, 2018 South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster followed suit. “This is not an evacuation. It is way too early for that,” he said Saturday. “We know that it’s coming, and we know that we need to take precautions.” McMaster, a Republican, called Florence “a very unpredictable hurricane,” adding: “We are preparing for the worst and of course hoping for the best. Being prepared is always the best strategy.” Florence might not be the only major storm Cooper and McMaster…
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by Chris White A federal court back-peddled Tuesday night after business groups criticized a previous order forcing the EPA to enforce an Obama-era rule designed to regulate chemical plants. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an original ruling Aug. 31 after activists asked the judges to skip the traditional 52-day waiting period to enforce their Aug. 31 ruling, which held that the Trump administration improperly delayed the regulation. The judges reversed the order, saying it had been made “inadvertently.” The decision will now take place Oct. 8. Judges Judith Rogers and Robert Wilkins did not further explain their reasoning. They asked the legal teams to submit briefs on whether to immediately enforce the decision. Environmentalists and attorneys general involved in the litigation wanted the court to skip the wait period based on what they call the immediate danger associated with holding up the rule. “Petitioners and the public have a strong interest in the court’s mandate issuing promptly, due to the serious and irreparable harm and imminent threats to public health and safety that EPA’s Delay Rule is causing,” they wrote. The Trump administration delayed implementing it while it reconsidered major aspects of the rule, which was initially due…
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by Evie Forham South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington was moved out of intensive care and has begun physical therapy after a June 22 car crash left her in serious condition, a Thursday tweet from candidate’s Twitter account said. Arrington is expected to make a full recovery after the collision. Katie Arrington was moved out of ICU last night. Her physical therapy session today went extremely well and was twice as long as yesterday’s session. Katie knows these sessions are important steps toward her return to serving and fighting for the Lowcountry. #PrayForKatie — Katie Arrington (@karringtonsc) June 28, 2018 Arrington was sitting in the passenger seat when another car driving in the wrong lane smashed into the South Caroline state representative’s vehicle. Arrington’s driver, the candidate’s friend, Jacqueline Goff, was also critically injured, reported The Post and Courier. The other driver, Helen White, died at the scene. Arrington had surgery on her abdomen and back. She gained national attention when President Donald Trump endorsed her via Twitter in her bid to be representative of South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District over rival candidate Mark Sanford on June 12, the night of the Republican primary. Arrington beat Sanford 50.6 percent to 46.5 percent. Mark…
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by Thomas Phippen South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington was injured in a car accident late Friday night, days after defeating incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford for the party’s nomination. Arrington was in the passenger seat of a car heading toward Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, when her vehicle was struck by a car driving in the wrong lane, the Post and Courier reports. Joe Cunningham, the Democratic nominee running against Arrington, said in a tweet that he is “suspending all campaign activities until further notice.” We are suspending all campaign activities until further notice. https://t.co/yigZupPoLz — Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) June 23, 2018 Arrington suffered a fractured spine and several broken ribs, and other injuries will need major surgery. She will likely undergo a major procedure to remove part of her small intestine and place a stint in her leg, according to campaign spokesman Michael Mule She is expected to recover in the hospital for two weeks, and doctors say her good health is responsible for the positive outlook. “There’s not many people as tough as Katie Arrington,” Mule said. The driver of the other vehicle was killed in the crash. Arrington defeated Sanford, a third-term congressman and former South Carolina governor, with…
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A coalition of a dozen states led by Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift lower court injunctions forbidding enforcement of President Donald Trump’s proclamation on enhanced vetting, the latest iteration of his travel ban. Federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland issued orders enjoining the proclamation in October. The proclamation was issued at the conclusion…
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The Golden State Warriors won’t be the only champions to turn down President Donald Trump’s White House invitation. According to the Associated Press, the South Carolina women’s basketball team has turned down an invitation to visit the White House: Well @POTUS invited @GamecockWBB to White House for NCAA celebration tomorrow and they declined — Doug Feinberg…
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Florida Gators wide receiver Kadarius Toney and defensive end Jachai Polite have been ruled out for Saturday’s game at South Carolina, the team announced. Toney and Polite are nursing shoulder injuries for the Gators (3-5, 3-4 SEC). Toney has recorded 117 rushing yards and 115 receiving this season while Polite has registered 22 tackles and two…
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Everything surrounding the Tennessee football program is sketchy at the moment. The Vols sit at 3-3 on the season and, after two straight losses to Georgia (by quite a lopsided margin) and South Carolina, Butch Jones’ seat has never been hotter in Knoxville. In fact, many believe that there is very little Jones can do to…
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South Carolina scored nine second-half points and the defense came up with three stops inside the 2-yard line in the final 10 seconds as the Gamecocks held on for a 15-9 win over the Volunteers on Saturday at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. Tennessee redshirt freshman Jarrett Guarantano, making the first start of his career, drove…
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